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Continental Airlines Airbus Industrie A-300-B4-203 A300-B4-20 incident

3 Aug 1987 · Denver, CO, United States

Airbus Industrie A-300-B4-203 A300-B4-20 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff

From Denver International Airport (DEN) to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)

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Event

NTSB case
DEN87IA207
Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Incident
InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
Completed
API-reported fatalities
0 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
0
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
Airline
WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
Visual Meteorological Cond

Airbus Industrie A-300-B4-203 A300-B4-20

Aircraft type
Airbus A-300
Category
Airplane
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
N966C
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Denver International Airport (DEN)To Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA), Seattle, WA
Aircraft age
Not recorded
Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
Part 121: Air Carrier
Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
Takeoff · roll/run
First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
Airframe, component or system failure
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Minor

Cause areas

  • Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, not performed
  • Electrical system, constant speed drive unit › Underspeed
  • Pilot in command › Abort above v1, performed
  • Pilot in command › Abort, delayed

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

AS COPLT ACCELERATED ACFT THROUGH 128 KTS FOR TAKEOFF, ELECTRICAL MALFUNCTION OCCURRED RESULTING IN UNRELIABLE INSTRUMENT INDICATIONS. CAPT REJECTED TAKEOFF. ACFT WENT OFF END OF 12000-FT RWY. POST-INCIDENT EXAMINATION DISCLOSED NO. 1 CONSTANT SPEED DRIVE (CSD) OUTPUT SLOWED DUE TO OIL LEAKAGE. GENERATOR CONTROL UNIT TRIPPED AND OPENED LINE CONTACTOR. WITH REMOVAL OF ELECTRICAL LOAD, CSD OUTPUT SPEED INCREASED & ELECTRICAL LOAD REAPPLIED. CYCLE REPEATED ITSELF EVERY 0.84 SECONDS. CSD HAD NEVER BEEN OVERHAULED IN 10 YRS OF SERVICE. CVR/DFDR REVEALED ELECTRICAL MALFUNCTION OCCURRED AT 1240:12 & ABORT COMMAND GIVEN AT 1240:29. AT 1240:26, WHEN PWR WAS RESTORED TO DFDR, ACFT WAS DECELERATING THRU 171.08 KIAS. V1,VR, & V2 COMPUTED TO BE 161, 161, AND 165 KTS & ACCELERATE-STOP DISTANCE ABOUT 11,500 FT. INVESTIGATION FURTHER REVEALED ACFT GREEN BRAKE SYSTEM INOP & YELLOW SYSTEM USED. ADDITIONALLY, NO. 7 BRAKE ANTISKID INOP. BOTH ARE ALLOWABLE DEFERRED MAINTENANCE ITEMS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record DEN87IA207
Event ID
20001213X31774
Case number
DEN87IA207
Dataset
historical-pre2008
Source SHA-256
89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
  • Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
  • Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 21fa26c1ed0b3d08bd32fb829b15d2508d6dafec0a5ef9581961e6d866b4292f; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:39:15.060Z.
  • The NTSB's operator name is blank for N966C; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, CALA.